


Worth Fighting For

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Community: 100_tales, F/M, Season/Series 10, but that's not important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:18:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2128185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam gives a pep talk to a young scientist— and gets an incentive of her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth Fighting For

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "100_tales" prompt #064 "hopeless"

“Colonel Carter?” asked a voice, as she pulled the infirmary curtain closed on a sleeping Daniel.

It was one of the new scientists, Dr. Werner, in the bed across the aisle. Sam had never met him in person, but she approved every new addition to the science department and had trained herself to recognize all of them. Werner had just gotten his doctorate from St. Louis University, which was what had caught the SGC’s attention. The top-of-their-class students from Harvard and MIT might be theoretically the best, but what the Stargate Program actually depended on were kids from Farmington, Missouri, who had worked two jobs to put themselves through school, and still found time for volunteer work.

There was also the fact that the academic community tended to become suspicious when Ivy League valedictorians vanished, quite literally sometimes, from the face of the earth.

Werner’s ankle was bandaged, probably only a sprain, but he looked a little pale.

“Hey,” said Sam, stopping beside his bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Better, ma’am, thank you” he said. The young scientist paused, the blurted, “Ma’am, is there really any chance we can defeat the Ori?”

Sam blinked at him, then smiled. “It does look kind of hopeless, doesn’t it? But then, so did our fight against the Go’auld.”

“Ma’am?”

“You weren’t here at the beginning, Dr. Werner. We went out into the galaxy with no idea what we’d find, and we took some pretty heavy loses. The Goa’uld had armies of Jaffa, fleets of spaceships, technology we had barely begun to understand. But now the Jaffa are our allies, our spaceships are much more practical than any mothership, and we know more about this technology than the Goa’uld ever did.”

Werner hesitated. “But the Ori seem so much more… _evil_.”

Sam arched an eyebrow. “Don’t let the gold lamé fool you— the Goa’uld were plenty evil. And we defeated them, just like we’ll beat the Ori. Especially if we have smart people like you to help us.”

He smiled. “Yes, ma’am. As soon as Dr. Lam clears me, I’ve got some new shield configurations to run through the simulator.”

Sam patted his unbandaged ankle. “Good. For now, though, get some rest.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She closed the curtain around his bed, and was unsurprised to find someone on the other side.

“Checking up on us, sir?”

Jack grinned, hands in the pockets of his BDUs, and shrugged a shoulder at Daniel’s bed. “Just wanted to make sure Danny wasn’t Ascending on us again.”

Sam smiled. “He’s just sleeping. Carolyn’s got him on a couple of things, but he’ll be okay.”

“And what about you, Carter?” Jack asked softy.

There wasn’t much they could do in the crowded infirmary, but she took a step closer to him. “I’ll be okay, too. Now that you’re here.”

He nodded, then smiled. “That was some pep talk.”

“Yes, well, I have a pretty good incentive for wanting this to be over. Because I believe that somebody promised me a very, very long vacation at a picturesque cabin in Minnesota.”

“Who would promise you that? I believe my offer was an old fishing cabin with a fish-free pond.”

Sam took another step toward him, close enough that she could smell his aftershave. “As long as you’re part of the deal, Jack, I don’t care where we go.”

He grinned. “That’s a guarantee, Carter. But in the meantime, how about we find Teal’c, spring Daniel and have ourselves an old-fashioned team night. We can even bring Mitchell and Vala, show ‘em how it’s done.”

Sam grinned back. “That sounds perfect.”

THE END


End file.
